I have three objects; Action, Issue and Risk. These all contain a nunber of common variables/attributes (for example: Description, title, Due date, Raised by etc.) and some specific fields (risk has probability). The question is: Should I create 3 separate classes Action, Risk and Issue each containing the repeat fields. Create a parent class "Abstract_Item" containing these fields and operations on them and then have Action, Risk and Issue subclass Abstract_Item. This would adhere to DRY principal.